During
these past weeks the loss of loved ones from among our number has caused me to
reflect upon the ultimate destiny of all mankind.The fact that this life is uncertain and
death is sure has been emphasized in our minds once again.James, the brother of Christ, writes:

Whereas
ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For
what is your life? It is even a vapour, that
appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. James
4:14

And we are assured
by the writer of the Hebrew letter that:

“And
as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”Hebrews
9:27

And it doesn’t
matter how young or how old we are if we are of sufficient age to understand
and obey the commandments of God.Not
only is life uncertain and death sure it is also sure that God will not let
this earth stand forever.

II
Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that
are therein shall be burned up.”

And when we look at
the sin and degradation around us, even in this land which is supposed to be a
“Christian” nation, we wonder how much longer God will tolerate the antics of
mankind.

Whatever time God decides to bring
either our lives or this miserable ball of mud we live on to an end; we need to
be prepared.In his warnings to Israel
of God’s judgment to come the prophet writes:

Amos 4:12 “Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: andbecause I will do
this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.”

God’s judgment
against Israel was sure, death for all men is sure, judgment is sure.But what if I’m lost?Now that is a horrible thought isn’t it?God will not save everyone.There are those who are going to be lost,
there are those who are going to stand before the judgment seat of God and be
numbered among the goats.

Matthew 25:32-34 “And
before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from
another, as a shepherd divideth hissheep from the goats: 33And
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.Then
shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:” v.41 “Then
shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:”

There are going to
be those whom God will reject, whom God will forget; even among those of his
children.

Hosea 4:6 “6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt
be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also
forget thy children.”

Those who forget
the law of God, those who forget to honor God; God will not only for them but
their children as well.

If I Am Lost

I Will Not Be Alone

If I am among those who are lost in
eternity it is without any doubt that I will not be alone, I will have
uncounted multitudes of company.First
of all, the Apostle Paul assures us that whether we live or die we do not live
or die to ourselves:

Romans 14:7 “For
none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to
himself.”

Even in the
beginning of time when Mother Eve committed the first sin on earth she was not
alone in that transgression of the law of God.First of all, Satan the tempter was there with her:

Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent
was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the
garden?”

She
also had her husband and influenced him to sin as well.

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one
wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her; and he did eat. Genesis
3:6

During
the approximately 6000 years that have passed since that occasion there have
been multiplied millions of people follow her footsteps.Jesus assured his disciples and us as well
that the way to being eternally lost is broad, easy to find and there will be many
that go that way.

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter ye in
at the strait gate: for wide is
the gate, and broad is
the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is
the gate, and narrow is
the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

In the only picture that scripture
has given us of the period of rest after our lives have ended and that place we
will reside before we are taken before our eternal judge we find that the one
who was lost knew that he would not be alone.The rich man begged Father Abraham to warn his brothers to keep them
from joining him:

Luke 16:27-28 “Then he
said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's
house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also
come into this place of torment.”

And
so it will be.Not only will we be lost
but those that we may influence those who are nearest and dearest to us are
most likely to be lost as well.As if we
needed any other wrong charged to our account their souls will be our
responsibility as well.

If I Am
Lost

I Will Be
Lost Forever

If I am lost, I will be lost
forever, in punishment without end or relief.At the judgment, in the dividing of mankind between those who were to be
saved and those who were lost our Lord describes the scene in our key
scriptures this way:

Matthew 25:32:33 “And before him
shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as
a shepherd divideth his
sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the
goats on the left.” v.41 “Then shall he say also unto them on the left
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels:”

Our
understanding of the nature of hell is so important that Jesus repeated his
admonition.

Matthew 25:46 “And these
shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

The
Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul also assures us that not only will heaven
be eternal but hell will be eternal as well:

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming
fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;” 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9

God will not give men a second
chance!When we depart this earth in
death our record is sealed, our destiny is set, our eternal abode has been
determined.Now the Catholic denomination
teaches something different than that.In
the community where I grew up I saw widows, most of them poor as church mice,
who made regular visit to their priest and gave what little they had to have
special masses conducted, special prayers offered, to have their late husbands
absolved of their sin and removed from purgatory.This is a false doctrine, holding out a false
hope to people for monetary gain.In
Jesus’ description of the hadean world in Luke
16:19-31 we find nothing that would indicate that such a teaching is true.In fact we find just the opposite; movement
between paradise and the torment of Hades was impossible:

“And beside all this, between us and you there
is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot;
neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.” Luke
16:26

If I am lost I will be lost forever.

If I Am
Lost

I Will
Suffer Double Loss

If I am lost I will suffer a double
loss.I will be eternally separated from
God; I will trade the joys, comforts, and blessings of heaven for the pain,
suffering and torment of hell.I will
trade the opportunity to spend eternity with the faithful of God in a place so
wonderful that words cannot describe it adequately for hell that is just as
terrible as heaven is wonderful.

The Jews of Jesus’ day placed great confidence in the
fact that they were God’s chosen people, a nation blessed by the Creator of the
universe and keeper of all things.In
fact many were somewhat arrogant about it, thinking that they could not be
denied the richest blessings that God would give.When accused by Jesus of being the sons of
the devil this was the response:

John 8:39-41 “They answered
and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were
Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath
told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said
they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have
one Father, even God.”

They
did not believe that they could be separated from God.We have a great many people in this world
that believe the same thing today, even those among our brethren.But this is a false hope, a false confidence,
a faith build upon man’s opinion, not the word of God.Jesus also said:

Matthew 8:11-12 “And I say
unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.But the children of the kingdom shall be cast
out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The
children of the kingdom, the children of God, these chosen people, both
physical Israel and spiritual Israel can be “CAST INTO OUTER DARKNESS” to suffer the
punishment of Satan and his followers.They will be told “…I NEVER KNEW YOU: DEPART FROM ME, YE THAT WORK
INIQUITY.”Matthew 7:23

Those that are lost will give up
that glorious place that the Apostle John describes for us:

Revelation 21:18-21 “And the
building of the wall of it was of
jasper: and the city was
pure gold, like unto clear glass.And
the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.
The first foundation was
jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;The fifth, sardonyx;
the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a
topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an
amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street
of the city was pure gold, as it
were transparent glass.”

And
trade that beautiful home for a place that Jesus describes as a place of
“WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH” in Matthew
8:12, Matthew 22:13, Matthew 24:51 and
others.A place of torment, Luke 16:28, Revelation 14:10-11; a place reserved for the beast, Satan, and his
followers:

Revelation 20:10 “And the
devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the
beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day
and night for ever and ever.”

If I Am
Lost

It Will Be
My Fault

If
I am lost eternally it will be my fault.It will be my fault because everything that can be done has been done that
I might be saved to be with God and the children of God when I leave this
world.If I am lost I cannot blame God.God because would that all men would be saved:

I Timothy 2:3-4 “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our
Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and
to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

God’s goodwill toward mankind has
been manifested in that he has provided us with great and tremendous truths to
lead us to salvation.That body of truth
we find in the book of books that men call a Bible.That body of truth came into this world
because God made a promise.When sin
entered the world God promised Eve that through her seed He would bring one who
would overcome sin.And he did.

John 3:16 “FOR GOD SO
LOVED THE WORLD, THE HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN
HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.”

God’s love for mankind, for his
crowning creation was so great the He sent his only son into this world to
live, suffer and die that we might have salvation from sin and everlasting
life.It is through the “good news”, the gospel of his son Jesus Christ, the Word (John 1:1); preaching and teaching of
Jesus and his disciples that salvation is brought to you and I.

Romans 1:16 “FOR I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST; FOR
IT IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION TO EVERY ONE THAT BELIEVETH; TO THE FEW
FIRST AND THEN ALSO TO THE GREEK.”

God will not waver from his promise
because:

“THE
LORD IS NOT SLACK CONCERNING HIS PROMISES, AS SOME MEN COUNT SLACKNESS; BUT IS
LONGSUFFERING TO US-WARD, NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH, BUT THAT ALL
SHOULD COME TO REPENTANCE.”II Peter 3:9

If we are lost we cannot blame God.

If
we are lost we cannot blame the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the
Messiah, because he gave his life that you and I might live.

I John 4:9 “In this was
manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten
Son into the world, that we mightlive through him.”

The
Son of God left that beautiful home that the faithful will inherit to bring a
means of salvation to mankind:

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower
than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that
he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Hebrews 2:9

He
came to redeem us from our sin.He came
to preserve us as a people, a people set aside, peculiar to the purpose of
God.He invites all men to come and join
those that are redeemed:

“Come unto me,
all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I
am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light.” Matthew 11:28-30

If we are lost we cannot blame Jesus
Christ.

If
we are lost we cannot blame the Holy Spirit, the third person of the
Godhead, of what men call the Holy Trinity.All down through the ages of man, the Holy Spirit has guided the
prophets as instruments of God in what they wrote and what they taught.

II Peter 1:21 “For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy
Ghost.”

The
scripture is not of human origin.The
scripture is not of the will of man.The
scripture was delivered by the men of God and they were directed by the Holy
Spirit.But what the Holy Spirit gave
man did not originate with him either.What the Holy Spirit gave men to record and preserve for our salvation
was given by God himself:

II Timothy 3:16-17 “All
scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

If we are lost we cannot blame the
Holy Spirit as he has provided all that God has commanded him to provide for
our salvation.

If we are lost we cannot blame the angels because they stand ready
as messengers of God to assist man in any way that God directs.They rejoice when one soul repents and turns
to God.

Luke 15:10 “LIKEWISE, I SAY UNTO YOU, THERE IS JOY IN THE
PRESENCE OF THE ANGELS OF GOD OVER ONE SINNER THAT REPENTETH.”

If
we are lost we cannot blame the church or its people.The church exists to teach, preach and
persuade men to turn from their sin to God.If that ceases to be its purpose, then it ceases to be the church.The Word that it teaches is like that of Paul
to Timothy:

I Timothy 3:15 “But if I
tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the
house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of
the truth.”

The
church is the pillar and ground of the truth.All who will are invited to come, hear, be converted and partake of the
blessings of God found therein.

Revelation 22:17 “And the Spirit and the bride
say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst
come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

If I am lost it will be only because
I have denied that invitation to come and take “THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY.”If I am lost it will be because I have
refused God’s word and God’s way.It is
the responsibility of each one of us to save ourselves through our obedience to
the Word of God.In the first gospel
sermon ever preached the Apostle Peter as guided by the Holy Spirit:

Acts 2:40 “…WITH MANY
OTHER WORDS DIE HE TESTIFY AND EXHORT, SAYING, SAVE YOURSELVES FROM THIS
UNTOWARD GENERATION.”

We as free moral agents, given that
freedom by God when he created mankind have the privilege of accepting or
denying God’s call to come to him in obedience.The scripture is plain and all sufficient – if we deny the invitation we
are the only reason we would be lost in eternity.We are exhorted by the Apostle Paul:

Philippians 2:12 “WHEREFORE, MY BELOVED, AS YE HAVE ALWAYS OBEYED,
NOT AS IN MY PRESENCE ONLY, BUT NOW MUCH MORE IN MY ABSENCE, WORK OUT YOUR OWN
SALVATION WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING.”

Work out your own salvation in fear
and trembling because we know the wrath of God, the destruction of the worlds
and the punishment of the disobedient is assured.

Are you lost?Are you lost because you have not named the
name of Christ in confession, repented of your past sins and put on Christ in
baptism as we have been commanded in order to be added to the saved?Are you lost because there is sin in your
life that you need to make right with God?If there is and it is private sin, repent of that sin and pray to God
for his forgiveness.If it is a public
sin that has brought reproach upon the church come to God in prayer and
repentance, make yourself right with God.All who have need, all who will come now.